Public helps Flaming Lotus Girls' sculptures come to life

Supporters of the Flaming Lotus Girls admire "Soma" at Pier 14 Plaza on the Embarcadero. Viewers can change the installation's color and climb a platform to touch the sculpture's brain.

Supporters of the Flaming Lotus Girls admire "Soma" at Pier 14 Plaza on the Embarcadero. Viewers can change the installation's color and climb a platform to touch the sculpture's brain.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

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Family members and friends of the Flaming Lotus Girls celebrate the inauguration of the sculpture "Soma" at Pier 14 Plaza on San Francisco's Embarcadero.

Family members and friends of the Flaming Lotus Girls celebrate the inauguration of the sculpture "Soma" at Pier 14 Plaza on San Francisco's Embarcadero.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

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Burning Man participants check out "Soma," a sculpture by the Flaming Lotus Girls, on the playa in 2009.

Burning Man participants check out "Soma," a sculpture by the Flaming Lotus Girls, on the playa in 2009.

Photo: Joe Dacanay, Flaming Lotus Girls

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The sculpture, with the Bay Bridge's "Bay Lights" installation in the background, features illuminated dendrites.

The sculpture, with the Bay Bridge's "Bay Lights" installation in the background, features illuminated dendrites.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

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A push button actuator controlls the color of the flashing LED's of the sculpture SOMA. A new steel sculpture called "Soma" by the Flaming Lotus Girls was inaugurated by the group on Wednesday, July 23, 2014, at Pier 14 Plaza on the Embarcadero in San Francisco, Calif. The sculpture, which debuted at Burning Man in 2009, depicts two brain neurons the work is illuminated by LED light show to work off the Bay Lights and Bridge Lights. less

A push button actuator controlls the color of the flashing LED's of the sculpture SOMA. A new steel sculpture called "Soma" by the Flaming Lotus Girls was inaugurated by the group on Wednesday, July 23, 2014, ... more

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

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David Ellsworth, of San Mateo, photographs the sculpture SOMA as it is inaugurated on Wednesday. A new steel sculpture called "Soma" by the Flaming Lotus Girls was inaugurated by the group on Wednesday, July 23, 2014, at Pier 14 Plaza on the Embarcadero in San Francisco, Calif. The sculpture, which debuted at Burning Man in 2009, depicts two brain neurons the work is illuminated by LED light show to work off the Bay Lights and Bridge Lights. less

David Ellsworth, of San Mateo, photographs the sculpture SOMA as it is inaugurated on Wednesday. A new steel sculpture called "Soma" by the Flaming Lotus Girls was inaugurated by the group on Wednesday, July ... more

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

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The sculpture SOMA is seen with the skyling of the Embarcadero visible behind it on Wednesday. A new steel sculpture called "Soma" by the Flaming Lotus Girls was inaugurated by the group on Wednesday, July 23, 2014, at Pier 14 Plaza on the Embarcadero in San Francisco, Calif. The sculpture, which debuted at Burning Man in 2009, depicts two brain neurons the work is illuminated by LED light show to work off the Bay Lights and Bridge Lights. less

The sculpture SOMA is seen with the skyling of the Embarcadero visible behind it on Wednesday. A new steel sculpture called "Soma" by the Flaming Lotus Girls was inaugurated by the group on Wednesday, July 23, ... more

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

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Family and friends of the Flaming Lotus Girls gather in front of the sculpture SOMA on Wednesday. A new steel sculpture called "Soma" by the Flaming Lotus Girls was inaugurated by the group on Wednesday, July 23, 2014, at Pier 14 Plaza on the Embarcadero in San Francisco, Calif. The sculpture, which debuted at Burning Man in 2009, depicts two brain neurons the work is illuminated by LED light show to work off the Bay Lights and Bridge Lights. less

Family and friends of the Flaming Lotus Girls gather in front of the sculpture SOMA on Wednesday. A new steel sculpture called "Soma" by the Flaming Lotus Girls was inaugurated by the group on Wednesday, July ... more

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

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"Soma" on the playa at Burning Man 2009, with Flaming Lotus Girls

"Soma" on the playa at Burning Man 2009, with Flaming Lotus Girls

Photo: Joe Dacanay, Flaming Lotus Girls

Public helps Flaming Lotus Girls' sculptures come to life

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What doesn't burn at Burning Man is anything made by Flaming Lotus Girls, a volunteer army of 100 that bends and welds stainless steel at a yield of one major project a year, built to last.

"Soma," their depiction of two brain neurons, debuted on the playa of the Nevada bacchanal in 2009 and has now found a semipermanent home at Pier 14 Plaza - to blend with the gray metal of the Bay Bridge by day and twinkle with "Bay Lights" by night.

"This is our first public art installation, and we are very excited to show our city what we can do," says Pouneh Mortazavi, a computer programmer and lawyer but not the leader of Flaming Lotus Girls, which has no leader. Started in 2001, the group is a democracy that operates in Hunters Point. Hard metals are their medium of choice, accented by flame and electricity. At Christmastime they go through ideas and choose one by popular vote. At the end it gets a name and is addressed by the feminine pronoun.

"We premiered her at Burning Man," Mortazavi says of "Soma." "Then she's been to EDC (Electric Daisy Carnival), a big music event in Vegas, and she's been to the Maker Faire in San Mateo." Out on the playa at night, she spit balls of fire from her dendrites and threw flame across her arch. To tone the installation down for city life, the group replaced the fire with 97 LED lights programmed to emit 1.6 million unique colors.

It is the first lighted project at Pier 14 Plaza, a public art space at the foot of Mission Street owned by the Port of San Francisco. "Soma" replaces "Raygun Gothic Rocket Ship," another Burning Man installation that went up in 2010."Soma" weighs four tons, and Flaming Lotus Girls has a permit to keep her running for a maximum of two years. The port waived permit fees, but the installation cost $50,000, raised by the group with help from the Black Rock Arts Foundation. Two wooden platforms were built to hide the lighting rig and allow visitors to climb up and touch the brain. They can also touch a switch to change the color.

"We're not just creating a static sculpture," Mortazavi says. "We create these art experiences where the viewer is inside it making the sculpture come to life."

Flaming Lotus Girls meets Wednesday evenings, and when a project nears completion, their warehouse - called the BoxShop - is throwing sparks all day and all night as volunteers cut, bend, taper, truss and weld the steel. There are professional welders in Flaming Lotus Girls, but skill is not a criterion.

"We train and educate artists at all levels," she says. "We have everything from baristas to neuroscientists."

The neuroscientists in Flaming Lotus Girls came up with the idea of "Soma," which is named after a cell body, not a neighborhood. Coincidentally, the neuron sculpture was installed during the same weekend as the "Walk for Brain Injury" around Lake Merced.

One of the walkers, Kimberley Jones, finished her day and was startled at night to see "Soma" flash in the night sky just blocks from where she'd been hit by a sport utility vehicle four years ago, causing brain damage that she is still recovering from. Jones, 50, a healing artist who lives in Noe Valley, was so inspired by the sculpture that she came back to see it glisten in the daylight.

"The power of neurons to transform and rejuvenate from life endangering injury," she says, "is analogous to the power of art to heal and inform."